#190 Aspects of British Political History 1815-1914 (1994)

Author: Stephen J. Lee
Title: Aspects of British Political History 1815-1914
Genre: Political History
Year: 1994
Pages: 340
Origin: Library book
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5

Stephen J. Lee’s Aspects of British Political History is a guide to the various differences and pitfalls of the nineteenth century political scene. It is a “nuts & bolts” approach that attempts to select the key areas and people of ninety-nine years of history, in an attempt to understand their actions and the histography that has since surrounded the effects of their decisions. In the first paragraph of the introduction, Lee sets out his stall in his hope to ‘capture the imagination of the general reader who likes to go beyond narrative into the realm of debate’.

Published in the dearth of the Tory political landscape of the early 1990s, the book certainly adds plenty of debate. Lee is keen to always bring in the historical interpretations of ‘Whig’, ‘Tory’ and ‘Marxist’ history. Such approaches have appeared to have lost favour in academic and the book market in recent years; with us contemporaries gloating in the short-sighted belief that we are perhaps at the end of history (fall of Communism, triumph of Capitalism, seeming victory of TV reality shows).

Major themes include the years of Tory rule (1812-1830), the reforms of the Whigs in the 1830s, the fall of Peel and the Corn Laws in the 1846, the golden years of Palmerstone, the changing fortunes of Gladstone and Disraeli, British imperialism and years of “splendid isolation”, the great reforms of the New Liberals, and the rise of Labour. Furthermore, Lee concludes the book with chapters based on a long view of the ninety nine years (including British foreign policy, the economy, and policy towards social problems), as well as a short chapter on valuable primary sources available for the student and keen lay reader.

Despite being published relatively recently (1994), the final finish of the book shows shoddy tables and graphs of a pre-digital era (though, in truth, the lack of 3-D pie-charts has only served to have endeared the Worm to the book). Yes, there are more beautiful books, and many more that concentrate on nineteenth century politics that carry a stronger, more distinctive narrative. But this was never Lee’s intention, as he clearly states in the introduction. This is a book for readers who wish to swim deeper in debate, to go beyond mere name recall and recognition of key events, to gain an understanding to the all important why these events happened. It is the Worm’s hope that this book will heighten the analytical senses of students for many years yet to come.

Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aspects-British-Political-History-1815-1914/dp/0415090075/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1356802834&sr=8-3

Big Nodders

The fourth reading season has seen the return of many famous names and friends on the Worm’s reading hit-list. We welcomed the Victorian novelists Arthur Conan Doyle in another Sherlock Holmes adventure, as well as the life of Charles Dickens’ “favourite” David Copperfield. T.S. Eliot was again on show, this time in the weighty and fantastic Selected Poems, as has Alan Moore, and – of course – the unshakeable William Shakespeare.


All of which has forced the Worm’s hand at bringing together a new list: ‘Top Author Nods’; otherwise, affectionately known by the Worm himself as “Big Nodders”. To obtain a mention on this – admittedly – pointless list, an author must add up all of their nods achieved by the Worm’s partisan judgement. If ten is totalled or beaten, their name is slapped on the list to the sound of champagne corks popping across the room. Metaphorical sounds and corks, of course.

So far, seven authors have made the grade. These range from the serious (Tom Paine) to the happy (Bill Bryson), from the sensationalist (Bret Easton Ellis) to the downright annoying (David Starkey). The seven names say a lot of the Worm himself and his reading habits these past three to four years. The question he asks of himself: “Was it worth it?”

The current front-runner. Yes, him – Shakespeare! – once again. 7 reads and a healthy dose of nods (including 5 nodders in the form of Macbeth and Richard III) confirm him as a cut above the rest. The gauntlet has been laid down for the others. Even David Starkey.

1. William Shakespeare (7 books - 29 nods)

2. Alan Moore (3 books - 12 nods)

3. Bret Easton Ellis (4 books - 12 nods)

4. Niall Ferguson (3 books - 11 nods)

5. Bill Bryson (4 books - 11 nods)

6. David Starkey (4 books - 11 nods)

7. Thomas Paine (2 books - 10 nods)

#189 Y The Last Man

Authors: Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra
Title: Y The Last Man
Genre: Graphic Novel
Year: 2002-2008
Pages: 1,500 (approx)
Origin: read from the collection of Mr. C
Nod Rating: 4 nods out of 5

‘When the mother of the race is free, we shall have a better world, by the easy right of birth, and by the calm, slow, friendly forces of evolution.’
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

During much of September and October of this year, the Worm was involved in the reading of the comic series Y The Last Man. Spanning six years of publication history and sixty issues, the story finds the reader following the adventures of Yorick Brown: the last man on the planet. All other mammals – bar his pet monkey (not a euphemism, you dirty minded readers) – have been wiped out in a quick, bloody and – ultimately – mysterious plague.

Created by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Pia Guerra (and including the additional talents across the long run of Goran Sudzuka, Paul Chadwick, and Jose Marzan Jr.), Y The Last Man ticks the boxes of the sci-fi, dystopian adventure genres. The annihilation of the human race is not an original concept, but this particular story deviates from the central idea in a number of interesting ways. Visually, instead of the usual bleak, dark city skylines so often employed in these stories, Y The Last Man is filled with bright skies and grassy fields. Of greater difference is the lack of male characters; what could be deemed a risky strategy in what is a male dominated comic market, both in terms of readership and the characters (for every Wonder Woman there are hundreds of Batmen, Supermen and X-Men); something the story’s creators should take full credit for.

The central characters include the never-do-well Yorick, his monkey sidekick Ampersand, his assigned tough-guy bodyguard Agent 355, and the brains of the operation Dr. Allison Mann. Across sixty issues, this team traverse the North American continent, across the Pacific, Australia, South East Asia before finally ending in Paris – all in the hope of finding answers and a way of saving the human race (along with locating Yorick’s girlfriend, Beth). Throughout this series various characters and plots unfold, including love affairs for all central characters, a Russian solider, Israeli commandoes, a ninja in the vicious form of Toyota, and – as obligatory fare for end-of-the-world dystopian fiction - a crazy doctor who is intend on killing all.

Earlier storylines (including ‘Unmanned’, ‘Cycles’, ‘One Small Step’ and ‘Ring of Truth’) see the series at its ramping finest in the establishing of the narrative. They are aided with the addition of smaller stories that build upon the theories of man’s destruction and the role of gender (including ‘Comedy & Tragedy’). It is a shame that the stories become all the more convoluted and sensationalist in later issues (including a contrived naked lesbian scene). The series suffers by an overload of back-story issues of central and minor characters; a clear indication that the creative team were running out of ideas of where to take the main storyline. Such a decline is alleviated – slightly – by the pitting of rivals in a fight to the death in the later storyline of ‘Motherland’; but even this fails to recapture the earlier spirit of the series. The original intentions of the comic’s length is left uncertain, but a journey that did not extend beyond the confines of the United States could have resulted in a happier, more succinct conclusion for all – readers and creators alike.

The Worm is not adverse to including a “spoiler” or two in his reviews; the ending issues of Y The Last Man reveals a late – almost forced – romance, followed by the shock death of a principal character in the rather rushed storyline ‘Whys and Wherefores’. The final issue (‘Alas’), set decades in the future, unsuccessful attempts to resolve the various question marks surrounding the central characters. It is regretful that this future society, in which countries continue the old fears and suspicions of the past, but with a certain stabilisation in the clones of Yorick’s genes, is not developed in greater detail. Although the fate of Yorick himself is, thankfully, left open-ended for the reader.

The feminist aspect to this series remains its strongest attraction. Previous works of fiction have pondered a world without men, including Mary Shelley’s The Last Man and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s fantastic Herland. Vaughan offers glimpses as to how society may unfold: some believing that all is lost without their husbands, brothers and sons to those who seek to avenge the servitude of the female race by grabbing power (as shown in the group the Amazons). Attention is paid to how dominant the male gender is within key professions, including the armed forces, transport and politics (the new President of the USA being the holder of the unknown post of Secretary of Agriculture). And although Yorick may be the chief protagonist, the success in their adventures is down to the females surrounding him: the fighting is done by his protector, Agent 355, whilst the lion’s share of the thinking by their companion Dr. Allison Mann.

The mystery that is the plague remains to the final page, with no definitive answer given. Vaughan himself noted the delight in teasing the audience: ‘I feel that there is a definitive explanation, but I like that people don’t necessarily know what it is. In interviews we always said that we would tell people exactly what caused the plague. The thing was, we never said when we were going to tell. We weren't going to tell you when we were telling you, I should say. We might have told you in issue #3. There might have been something in the background that only a couple people caught. It might have been Dr. Mann's father's very detailed, scientific explanation. It might have been Alter's off-the-wall conspiracy theory. The real answer is somewhere in those 60 issues, but I prefer to let the reader decide which one they like rather than pushing it on them.’ Theories include the time-bomb trigger that was the first human clone; mysticism in the form of a sacred ring; religion playing a part in the Rapture taking all men from the Earth as punishment for original sin; or perhaps even by ‘death-by-chick-flick.’ In the manner of all great question marks, the origins of the plague will hopefully continue to keep the flames of debate stoked for many years to come between the series’ faithful readers.

Talk of a big screen adaption have been mooted for years. However, the Worm is of the firm opinion that such a movie – in one-off form – would not serve such a long-winding narrative. As one-time slated director of the project D.J. Caruso stated, it wouldn’t do the story ‘justice’. Other options include a possible TV series; but, perhaps the beauty of the comic book format is the prospect of telling an extended story, with various subplots and character develop, in a way that no other medium can offer (as Alan Moore argued in a book reviewed on the pages of this blog just a month or two ago). For readers who want an adventure story with a brain, Y The Last Man is a series to be enjoyed. The Worm highly recommends the series to serious readers of dystopian fiction.

Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Man-Deluxe-HC-Vol/dp/1401219217/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353856226&sr=1-1

#188 The Darwin Wars (1999)

Author: Andrew Brown
Title: The Darwin Wars
Genre: Science
Year: 1999
Pages: 220
Origin: bought in a charity shop during September 2012
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5

Hailed by the author himself ‘as a history if ideas with all the messy bits left in’, The Darwin Wars is a book about evolutionary theory and the different positions that have developed ever since Darwin’s initial mutterings on the subject. Within ten – rather brief – chapters, Brown attempts to include the main viewpoints and theoretical standpoints, whilst looking at the human motive behind such scientific work.

Writer and journalist, Andrew Brown has written a career’s work of books on many differing eclectic subjects, from the intriguing book title In the Beginning Was the Worm: Finding the Secrets of Life in a Tiny Hermaphrodite to the London police (Watching the Detectives). Throughout The Darwin Wars he shows his journalist’s touch, making the words on the page relevant, and removing any superfluous material; resulting in a modest and manageable 220 pages. Furthermore, his schooling in the topic is vast, having served as Religious Affairs Correspondent for The Independent for a decade.

The central dialogue and debate during the book is between two groups; labelled by Brown as the ‘Gouldians’ and the ‘Dawkinsians’. Led by their anointed leaders (Stephen J. Gould and Richard Dawkins), Brown pits them against one another in a fight, in the words of the book’s subtitle, for ‘the scientific battle for the soul of man’.

Numerous characters pop up during the book, with Brown always interested in not simply the theory but the human story that led to the theory. This is the strength of the book, in hooking the reader with that keen journalistic eye. Such people include not only Gould and Dawkins, but also William Hamilton, Richard Lewontin, John Maynard Smith and even obligatory space for the likes of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler. The most interesting of all is the story surrounding the torn soul that was George Price, who serves as the main focus for the book’s opening chapter, ‘The Deathbed of an Altruist’.

A decade after The Darwin Wars first went into print, Brown won the 2009 Orwell Prize for the book Fishing in Utopia. The Darwin Wars never threatens to obtain such a lofty position, with Brown himself labelling such work as ‘pop science books’: pages for the general public and not simply the specialists. As a short and compact book that attempts to explain the different positions of the various thinkers on the theories of evolution, it is a welcome book to the collection. It is not Brown’s intention to supersede the meatier and involving works of Dawkins & co, but rather to serve as a window for these works to the uninitiated.


Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Darwin-Wars-Scientific-Battle/dp/0684851458

Check out the website promoting the book:
http://www.darwinwars.com/index.html